A judge has dismissed Wolfgang Puck Worldwide Inc. as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by a woman who alleged she suffered serious burn injuries in 2020 after she put her hand on a defective Wolfgang Puck bistro pressure cooker and it exploded due to the failure of the cooker’s safety features.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mark Epstein heard arguments on Jan. 7 on Wolfgang Puck’s dismissal motion, then took the issues under submission before ruling Friday in the case brought by plaintiff Angela Tate, who also sued W.P. Appliances Inc. in Hollywood, Florida.
Tate filed the case in July 2022, alleging strict and negligent products liability and breaches of the implied warranty of merchantability as well as the fitness for a particular purpose.
According to Tate’s suit, on Aug. 9, 2020, she suffered “serious and substantial burn injuries” during the “normal” use of the Wolfgang Puck 8-quart Rapid Pressure Cooker when its “scalding hot contents” spilled onto the plaintiff. An excerpt from her pretrial deposition included within her court papers stated that she also hurt her right shoulder when she jumped back and that she was off work from her bus driver job for about eight months.
In their court papers, Wolfgang Puck lawyers argued the company was only part of a licensing agreement with a third party and therefore could not be held liable because WP did not design, manufacture and distribute the pressure cooker.